September 4, 2011 - Labor Day Weekend

JW has been gone for a few days now.  He has hit the SPOT OK button 3 times so I have received 3 okay messages since he left on Thursday afternoon.  They camped at milepost 145 on the Dalton Highway near Grayling Lake and then on Friday the outfitter flew them in to Twin Lakes and left them off - they are camping at the north end of the lakes.

Yesterday I saw on the FINDMESPOT that there were 23 tracks so at least as of last night he was fine and he and his hunting partner had spent 9 - 10 hours hiking up to the top of one hill and back down. They have the satellite phone with them so they can call also but so far no call.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch, I'm kind of enjoying the peace and quiet of home.  Needless to say, I stayed up way too late Friday night but in my defense that is because JW's hunting partners wife kept texting me - I think she's a little worried about the guys since we didn't hear anything from them until late Friday night.  And she had called the outfitter and found out that the SPOT which we've named NO2AK had fallen off the top of the truck so we weren't sure it would still be working.

I slept in a little on Saturday morning - till 7 but that's ok as it was 1:00 am before I had gotten to sleep.  When I got up, I worked a little bit on a Cabbage Rose paper pieced quilt block, finished the binding on a Christmas wall hanging named Stocking UP, (I finished up the beading today and if anyone wants the pattern just let me know and I'll pass it on - and NO I am not decorating early for Christmas).

I cleaned the house a bit and started going through stuff in one of the closets - time to declutter.  At 11:30, I left the house to pick up MP for her hair appointment at 1:15.  She decided instead of coloring it she wanted the blond pieces cut out.  First stop was at The Chowder House for a cup and a half.  I had the Halibut  corn chowder and crab salad sandwich, MP had Clam Chowder and a turkey sandwich. 

From there, we went to the Mane Place for a 1:15 appointment only to find out that the beautician hadn't come in again.  They said they would see if someone else could fit us in.  Then a girl came over and said she could not cut the blond out that it would have to be colored and there was no way she could do it yesterday.  I got a little irritated and told them that was ridiculous and we would go elsewhere.

So I drove to Hair em and we got in with no problem.  The girl there said she could cut it but wouldn't be able to get all the blond out - there would still be a few blond tips but she did a great job and got most of it out.  MP did agree to cutting 2" off the bottom and it looked so much better when it was done.

MP was in pain during the blow-drying but didn't say anything.

After the hair cut, we drove through Splash n Dash to get the truck washed as it was looking pretty bad.  MP hadn't been through a car wash before so it was a new experience for her to sit in a vehicle as it went through the flapping ribbons and twirling brushes.  I asked her where to next and she decided ice cream would be good so we drove down University to College Ave and made a stop at Hot Licks.  She had a 1 scoop chocolate ice cream cone and I had a Strawberry Hawaiian Ice.  They will be open until September 17 and then will be shutting down for the winter.

We talked about going to the movie a little but the only movie I wanted to see was The Help and she was going to that with her Aunt on Sunday.  She wanted to go see Don't be Afraid of the Dark but I told her I was not going to see a slice and dice movie when I was home alone.  Our next stop was the Farmer's Market.  I wanted to get some fresh catnip for Tinkerbell but unfortunately they didn't have any.  We did buy a bottle of Alder Smoked Moosetard which when mixed with cream cheese makes a delicious dip.

From Farmer's Market, we made a stop at Creamer's Field and drove over by the visitor center as neither of us had been there.  We noticed that there were very few cranes left.  MP said she had been seeing them flying over near the school so I think they have started their southerly journey.  Still a lot of geese left though.

Garden by the old farm house

Visitor Center

Patches of yellow on the surrounding hills.

I would love to have a tree like this big tall spruce.  The bottom branches made a nice big shady canopy.

MP decided we could go see the Spy Kids movie.  It was now 4:00 and that movie didn't start again until 5:30.  She said, "Well, we could go over and if it really doesn't start till that late we could go see Don't be Afraid of the Dark."  She's really getting so she jokes around a lot.  While we decided what we should do if anything more, I decided to circle the north side of Fairbanks by driving Farmer's Loop.

There is a little farm over on the north east end that has horses.  It was nice to see them out grazing and enjoying the sunshine.  Sure made me homesick for Montana though - some days I can hardly wait until we can move back down there.

MP's Aunt called and said that she had gotten a message from the salon about the hair appointment being cancelled but she had thought it was Thursday.  I sometimes wonder about communication in that house but knew that she knew the appointment had been cancelled on Thursday since they had called her and she had called me.  :-(  Anyway, whatever.  I asked MP if she had told her Aunt i was picking her up today and she said she had forgotten and when she got up her aunt was already gone.  I decided I should go ahead and take her home so she could spend some time with her family and her aunt who is visiting from Fort Yukon.

Then I went to Freddy's to pick up a few groceries and headed for home.  By 7 PM, I could hardly keep my eyes open so I headed up for an early nights sleep.

Today, I have been going through a few things and making a list of the things I want to get done this week.  It looks like the sun is going to be shining all week so should be a good one.